Al Barsha is a district in Southwest Dubai, between Downtown and Dubai Marina, mostly known for the Mall of the Emirates, a fancy mall with many stores and a famous indoor ski slope! The area is mostly filled with midrise residential apartments, restaurants and a lot of hotels - everthing very new since the area was constructed just a few years ago. Some blocks are empty blocks filled with desert sands, in the middle of luxury hotels. It consists of six sub-communities and is bounded by Sheikh Zayed Road and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road.

Al Barsha is the area where we stayed, at the Grandeur Hotel.

MALL OF THE EMIRATES:

Ski Dubai

Kempinski Hotel

AL BARSHA, OTHERS:

This is what most metro stations of Dubai's red line look like: a futuristic golden curved building. The elevated metro track goes right throught the stations. The trains are computer driven and driverless, just like in Copenhagen! This is the Mall of the Emirates metro station.

The streets where flooded due to heavy rainfall the day before the evening we arrived. It usually rain only 2 times a years, during our stay it rained 3 times during one week! Climate changes!

You can watch tons of pics from the Al Barsha area, and read about our hotel, on the link below:

Al Barsha is a district in Southwest Dubai, between Downtown and Dubai Marina, mostly known for the Mall of the Emirates, a fancy mall with many stores and a famous indoor ski slope! The area is mostly filled with midrise residential apartments, restaurants and a lot of hotels - everthing very new since the area was constructed just a few years ago. Some blocks are empty blocks filled with desert sands, in the middle of luxury hotels. It consists of six sub-communities and is bounded by Sheikh Zayed Road and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road.

Al Barsha is the area where we stayed, at the Grandeur Hotel.

MALL OF THE EMIRATES:

Ski Dubai

Kempinski Hotel

AL BARSHA, OTHERS:

This is what most metro stations of Dubai's red line look like: a futuristic golden curved building. The elevated metro track goes right throught the stations. The trains are computer driven and driverless, just like in Copenhagen! This is the Mall of the Emirates metro station.

The streets where flooded due to heavy rainfall the day before the evening we arrived. It usually rain only 2 times a years, during our stay it rained 3 times during one week! Climate changes!

You can watch tons of pics from the Al Barsha area, and read about our hotel, on the link below:

Internet City is a neighbourhood designed for IT companies. It is situated between the New Downtown and Dubai Marina in the South part of the city. It is not very big, but has a few skyscrapers, most prominent are two Chrysler Building clones. Microsoft, Oracle, Nokia and IBM are among the companies that have offices here, and it is declared a free economic zone. Dubai Media City is bordering Internet City to the West. The Media City, focused on media companies, was established in year 2000, also got some skyscrapers and is very close to the shore where the road to the Palm Jumeirah Island begins.

Skyline of Media City (front) and Internet City (back). Al Kazim Towers (middle) from 2008 are practically two clones of Chrysler Bldg in NY.

You can watch tons of pics from the Internet City and Media City on the link below:

Madinat Jumeirah (literally the town of Jumeirah) is the largest resort complex in the Emirates, inaugurated in 2004. It is built in Middle Eastern style, situated between Jumeirah Beach and Jumeirah Road (the intersection where it changes name to Al Sufouh Road. It consists of large buildings in traditional style, that has been oversized. The architect designed the complex to resemble the historic Arabic windtower houses in the Bastakiya and Heritage Village historic districts, but much larger, and without the limits of the technology that was available then.

Madinat Jumeirah contains two luxury boutique hotels -Mina a'Salam and Al Qasr, canals, small lakes with tourist boats, 29 summer houses -called Dar Al Masyaf, landscaped gardens with palms, 40 restaurants/bars, a theater, an exhibtion hall, stores, bridges and a souk (Arabian market) that occupies a large part of the complex. It is home to the Dubai Film Festival and the Art Dubai International Fair. The Madinat Jumeirah is a very nice area, very pedestrian friendly and definately worth to visit even if it is a bit touristy. Especially the architecture is definately worth checking out!

Madinat Jumeirah with the Mina A'Salam (harbour of piece) and Burj Al Arab hotels in the background and an abra (old ship) to the right.

Madinat Jumeirah is illuminated by neon at night.

The entrance to the Souk Madinat Jumeirah

You can watch tons of pics from the Madinat Jumeirah on the link below:

Palm Jumeirah is an artificial archipelago with a shape of a palm, when seen from above, created by Nakheel. It is the only one of 3 palm islands that had been completed at the time of our visit (2014). Palm Jumeirah is the world's largest ariticial island and is filled with many luxury private villas, luxury apartments buildings, resort hotels, a water park, beaches, marinas, restaurants and a small airport. The private villas and some of the hotels are situated on the 16 fronds (palm blades), while the apartment buildings are situated along the boulevard in the middle. In the middle of the boulevard, there is an elevated, computer driven, driverless monorail train with stunning views of Dubai! In the end of this boulevard, the most famous structure of Palm Island is situated; the Atlantis resort, one of only two luxury hotels with this name, themed around the sea (the other one is on Bahamas). Surrounding the palm islands there is a crescent island with 14 themed resort hotels (like Atlantis, Fairmont, Trump, Waldorf Astoria and Kempinski). Celebrities like David Beckham and Brad Pitt own mansions on the island. Construction was started in 2001 and the first inhabitants moved there in 2006. There were a controversy about the island, since Nakheel extended the residences from 2000 to 4500, increasing the cost a lot, and there are rumours that the island is sinking.

The Atlantis Resort Hotel and Aquaventure Beach seen from the elevated train. The Atlantis, built in 2008 as the first resort on the island, is a copy of Atlantis on Bahamas. It is based on the theme of Atlantis, there is an underwater aquarium, 20 restaurants, and a waterpark inside.

The monorail train from Palm Jumeirah to the mainland of Dubai is driverless, elevated and has amazing views of Dubai! It is the first monorail in the Middle East.

Sheikh Zayed Road is the main thouroughfare of Dubai, a 10-18 lane highway with a driverless, elevated metro in the middle. Along the Northern part, the largest cluster of supertall skyscrapers of Dubai is situated - the Financial Centre. It is bordered to the North by Bur Dubai (the old town) and to the South by New Downtown, where you find Burj Khalifa and Business Bay. New Downtown, Financial Centre and Business Bay is practically one large cluster, where all skyscrapers are situated along or close to Sheikh Zayed Road. Further to the South, Sheikh Zayed Rd passes between Dubai Marina and Jumeirah Lakes Towers, two clusters where you also can find some of Dubai's tallest skyscrapers. Just North of the Financial Centre, World Trade Center stood as the tallest in the Emirates between 1979 and 1999 (Burj Al Arab was completed then), and in 2000 the elegant Emirates Towers where completed. The Emirates Towers where the tallest buildings in Dubai and Middle East until 2009. Until the mid 2000s, these buildings were almost the only ones on a lonely desert road.

We were a bit unlucky with the weather, getting grey skies and even some rain during our photo session, nothing you would expect in Dubai! This area is often critisized for being dead and to lack street life, but to be honest it is pretty well planned; there are side streets parallel to the Sheikh Zayed highway on both sides, where you can find restaurants, cafés and stores.

Emirates Towers where completed in 2000 and consist of an office tower, a hotel tower with a rooftop bar that we visited and Emirates Towers Boulevard, an elegant but very empty shopping galleria.Today only Burj Khalifa and Almas Tower are talleer then the spire of the Emirates Towers hotel tower (354.6m, 56 floors), the hotel tower is a bit shorter. The complex, in silver aluminium and bronze glass, was designed by the Hong Kong architect Hazel Wong. The hotel is called Jumeirah Emirates Towers.

DIFC Gate, Dubai International Finance Centre's headquarters. This plaza just off Sheikh Zayed Road is unusually green for Dubai. It is 80m tall and was built in 2004 in a modernist arch of triump design, in glass and Italian granite.

Skyscraper cluster on the Northeast part of Sheikh Zayed Road, dominated by Al Yaqoub Tower and The Tower.

Jumeirah Lakes Towers is a skyscraper cluster and free zone with many residential, office and hotel towers, situated in South Dubai opposite Dubai Marina from Sheikh Zayed Road. The neighbourhood is a brand new so called free zone and is landscaped around 3 lakes, it resembles Miami and Chicago. This site was only desert a few years ago. The tallest tower there is Almas Tower, one of Dubai's tallest ones. We visited Jumeirah Lakes Towers the last day in Dubai, before our flight home.

Almas Tower, the tallest of Jumeirah Lakes Towers and second tallest of Dubai (2014), has 68 floors and was completed in 2009, Dubai's tallest building until Burj Khalifa was complete in 2010. The facade is covered in green glass.

Gold Tower, a skyscraper with golden glass. There is also a Silver Tower.

Deira is situated just to the North and East of Bur Dubai (old town) and is the old financial center. It was the most modern part of Dubai until projects like New Downtown, Sheikh Zayed Road and Dubai Marina were released in the late 90s/2000s. Today the skyline seems really small compared to the newer parts in the south, but as late as in the 1990s, this was the only modern skyline of Dubai, and some of the buildings were really considered futuristic.
In Deira there is also a really old part with several souks (markets), such as the gold souk, the spice souk and the golden souk, mosques and the Deira Shopping center (Dubai's most popular mall) etc. You also find several international luxury hotels here. Port Saeed, part of Deira, holds the dhows (old fashioned cruise boats), abras (water taxis) and small shipping boats. The National Bank of Dubai, The Clock Tower and the Maktoum Bridge are among the landmarks in Deira.
We never visited Deira actually, we only saw it from across the creek, from the waterside of Bur Dubai and Al Shindagha. Originally we planned to go to Deira, but since there was so much to see in Bur Dubai, that took the whole day. Anyway, the best view of Deira is from afar.

Deira skyline and Dubai Creek (Al Khor) seen from Bur Dubai. It might not look much today, but this was the picture that were used in the 1990s to market Dubai i travel catalogues, before the large construction boom. The tallest building, with the convex glass facade, is the National Bank of Dubai from 1998, designed by Carlos Ott (125m, 25 floors). The blue glass building is the Chamber of Commerce from 1995, only 18 floors. The white building with the triangular shape is the Sheraton Deira Hotel, built already in 1978, the first futuristic building of Dubai. Right above it is Dubai Creek Tower from 1995 and the building is the huge golf ball on top is the Etisalat Building (all of Etisalat, the national telecom company's buildings have golf balls on top) from 1992. Old abras (water taxis) and dhows (wooden cruise ships) can be seen on the creek.

Twin Towers (right, 102m) from 1998 are among Dubai's first skyscrapers, not very tall today though

Hyatt Regency on Deira, seen from Al Shindagha. This hotel has revolving rooftop restaurant. In front of it is the famous fishing market

Jumeirah Road is the long road that goes along the coast of Dubai, parallel to the popular Jumeirah Beach. Unfortunately the sea is not visible from Jumeirah Road, so it is not a nice beach road for pedestrians with beautiful homes like I thought, it is more like a thouroughfare for cars with fastfood restaurants, workshops and warehouses and basic residential buildings, and many similar looking mosques, one of them is the only mosque in Dubai open for tourists. There are also some fancy shopping malls, like Mercato, de luxe hotels and exclusive restaurants, and from some points you can see the Financial Center skyline, including Burj Khalifa.

The hotels are facing the sea, the most famous is the sail shaped Burj Al Arab, said to be the world's first 7 star hotel, and the world's tallest upon completion. The district is called Umm Suqeim.

JUMEIRAH BEACH:

Jumeirah Beach and Burj Al Arab, the "7 star" hotel that was the world's tallest full hotel upon completion in 1999, 321m to the spire. Now it has been surpassed by other hotels in Dubai and China. It has 60 floors and a helicopter platform on top. It resembles a sail and the architecture style is structural expressionism and was designed by Atkins & Partners. To get inside and see the spectacular tall atrium and other features, you must reserve a table at one of the super expensive restaurants or bars, something we didn't have the opportunity unfortunately.

Jumeirah Beach Hotel has a curved shape. It was bult in the 1997 and was one of the first de luxe resort hotels in Dubai. It is hard to believe today that it was the 9th tallest building in Dubai upon completion, today lower then 100th tallest!

Jumeirah Mosque, the only mosque that visitors are allowed to enter. Actually there are many mosques along Jumeirah Road with almost similar design to this one, but this is the most famous one since it is open for non muslims. This is the one that usually occurs on photos, in the North part of Jumeirah Road.

Union House is a small, round building with glass walls, there United Arab Emirates was declared an independent country by the sheikhs from the six emirates on December 2nd 1971. The tall flagpole is the symbol for this event.

Another mosque on Jumeirah Road

Al Khazzan Park water tower and Financial district skyline from Al Safa St

Jumeirah Beach Hotel, a mosque and Burj Al Arab seen from Jumeirah Road

The area around Jumeirah Road (this is a side street) is partly a bit gritty and more working class. The financial district can be seen in the background.

Turkish Village on Jumeirah Road had a great but expensive Turkish dish. With views of the traffic!

Business Bay is the brand new area, still under construction in the desert (2014), that borders the New Downtown and Burj Khalifa to the South. The Dubai Creek has been artificially extended into the Business Bay area. The most dominant building is the brand new JW Marriott, that now also is the world's tallest hotel. Most skyscrapers are just a few years old, and you could still see the desert sand during our visit, clearly visible from Burj Khalifa.
We only saw Business Bay from afar, the buildings are impressive, though some of them are among the more tacky in Dubai, but I think several years will remain before this will be an attractive area to visit.

JW Marriott Marquis in Business Bay is currently (2014) the world's tallest hotel! It consist of two identical postmodern skyscrapers, 355m to the spire and 77 floors each, and was completed in 2013.

A skyscraper that was on fire during construction and Rose Tower (left)

Business Bay from Burj Khalifa:

JW Marriott Marquis - the world's tallest hotel, built 2013. Burj Al Arab, the former world's tallest hotel is in the far background at the sea.

Business Bay skyline. You can still see the desert sand.

The extention of Dubai Creek, that now flows from the old town to Business Bay. To the far left is U-Bora Towers. The small white tower with holes in is the so called "Cheese Tower", O14.

View several stunning photos of amazing Dubai in the Huffington Post’s story, “Dubai: Pearl of the Desert,” by writer/actor Jay Tavare. It features the latest images of the city’s fast-growing and most impressive skyline from the Burj Khalifa to Palm Island Dubai and the Dubai Mall. The author writes, after visiting the Burj Khalifa that, “..I got a sense that if it was not the biggest, tallest, fastest, rarest and most expensive it has no place in Dubai.”Amazed by the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, Tavare credited its architects Adrian Smith, Marshall Strabala, William Baker and George Efstathiou for their “daring design.”